Hit and run drink driver

Di Stanley | 11th June 2009

Sunshine Coast Daily

“LUCKY to be alive,” is how Emerald police describe a 12-year-old boy left bruised and shaken by a hit and run drink driver last week.

The 27-year-old male behind the wheel of a gold Holden Commodore utility later blew 0.232 per cent, his second run-in with the law in 16 hours.

The boy was at a friend's house in Pritchard Road when the drama unfolded.

“He has seen the car coming down the incorrect side of the road, and hopped off his bike and stepped back,” said plain clothes detective Senior Constable Fay Worthington.

“The car has hit the bike, flipped it, and it's come back on the boy.

“He had been at the house waiting for his brother, and he's been just off the edge of the driveway.

“He's very lucky to be alive.”

Ambulance officers attended the scene, and the boy, who resides in nearby Braeside Road, was later taken to Emerald Hospital by his parents.

A police spokesman said the utility was witnessed to accelerate on loose gravel at the intersection of Silica and Pritchard roads before swerving and making contact with the bike.

The driver then narrowly missed a tree only metres from the child and stopped before driving off along Pritchard Road.

Police identified the driver as the 27-year-old and the vehicle was located a short time later at a Bridgeman Street address and seized for mechanical inspection.

He was arrested and breath tested at Emerald station where he returned the blood alcohol reading more than four-and-a-half times the legal limit.

He was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while adversely affected by liquor, failing to remain at the scene of an incident, driving under the influence of liquor and obstructing police.

Detectives interviewed the child witnesses and an older male on Monday.

At 1.20am that morning, his miserable run of luck began.

Police were called to a disturbance at licensed premises where the man had allegedly threatened security staff after being assisted out of the front bar area.

He faces charges of refusing to leave licensed premises and disorderly conduct.